HOW WMI LOANS WORKClick here »
Welcome to Women's Microfinance Initiative
Watch Video of WMI 2011 Independent Banking ProgramWMI's mission is to establish village-level loan hubs, administered by local women, to provide capital, training and support to rural women in the lowest income brackets in East Africa so that they can engage in income producing activities. Goal:
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 History and Culture of Buyobo, including the Impact of the WMI Loan Program
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MEET MARGARET
MEET ALICE
MEET MORE WMI BORROWERS
Kamida's story starts eight years ago when she ran a café in the border town of Busia, Uganda , where her husband is from. However, business in Busia was a failure. Being a foreigner to the town, she was alienated by the community...
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WMI's goal is to help women build assets so that they can stabilize
their income, raise their standard of living and reorient themselves
and their families. WMI's small loans bring big changes to impoverished
women, who use the money to build small businesses. With pro bono legal
assistance from the law firm of Baker & McKenzie in New York, WMI issued
its first microloans in January 2008. As of January 2012, WMI has issued over 4,300 loans to women in more than 300 villages. Focusing its current efforts in rural Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania,
the WMI loan program is run entirely by local village women. WMI has developed a unique economic model to transition women to bank loans and the formal economy in 24-months. Loan funds are recycled so that the program becomes self-sustaining.
WMI 2011 - The Year in Pictures